Is Cannabis The Answer To Beer’s Declining Sales?

As more states move to legalize marijuana, speculation has grown about its potential as the catalyst that finally reverses the years-long sales decline in the beer industry. But an analyst at the Motley Fool isn’t so sure…

Here’s the deal…

The concept of a cannabis-infused beer is not a new one. Back in 2005, Lagunitas Brewing was raided by Alcohol Beverage Control, where not all that surprisingly they found employees smoking pot, resulting in the brewery shutting down for 20 days. Lagunitas, which is now owned by Heineken, commemorated this event by introducing a beer that wasn’t infused with cannabis but was inspired by the event.

So when the Motley Fool, a multimedia financial services company with stock analysts who watch the beer biz closely, published an article entitled Can Marijuana Stop Beer Sales From Falling? , it certainly didn’t pull any punches.

In it, Motley Fool’s Rich Duprey takes on the growing number of big brewers that are partnering with legal weed producers in the hope of reversing declining beer volumes….

But while Duprey freely acknowledges Cannabis Beers potential he questions whether their development is more a fad than a trend…

“Brewers often latch onto gimmicks, like ice beer, imperials, nitros, the oxymoronic black IPAs (it’s an India pale ale after all), or the New England IPAs that are cloudy rather than clear. You can still find these beers on store shelves, but their heyday has largely come and gone.”

“Although marijuana-infused beer appears to be another publicity stunt that will eventually fade away to become a niche product, this time brewers are paying tens of millions of dollars — sometimes hundreds of millions — for the privilege.”

Starting in 2018, big brewers began buying into Canadian cannabis companies…

In 2019 Constellation Brands, home to Mexican beers like Corona and cupped its stake in Canopy Growth a major cannabis producer from 9% to 38%, a massive $3.8 Billion deal.

That same year Molson Coors finalized a joint venture with HEXO, a recreational cannabis grower that was acquired by Tilray Brands in 2023 which now owns several US craft breweries including Alpine, Green Flash, Montauk and SweetWater Brewing to develop cannabis-infused drinks for the US (pending legalization).

But as things stand now it’s unclear as to how much the introduction of cannabis drinks will impact the beer biz.

Explaining that drinking a cannabis beer is not the same as an alcohol experience, or even an alcohol with pot experience, Duprey remains skeptical about cannabis beers’ long-term prospects…

 “Although there are supposed to be certain health and wellness attributes associated with THC, it doesn’t mean people will prefer to drink their weed rather than smoke it.”

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(Pot Beer Image Credit: Mitchell Maglio)